December 01, 2008

One is the Loneliest Number

Mayor Fred Eisenberger found himself on a political desert island today.
He was the sole supporter of a proposal to naturalize two small portions of the medians along the Linc and Red Hill Valley Parkway as a pilot project.

No one would second his motion.

Not a single councillor.

There was an awkward silence as everyone waited to see if anyone would step forward. Fred looked down the table full of councillors. They shuffled papers. Traditionally someone will offer a sympathy second to get an issue on the table, even if they know it's going nowhere. Not today.

Without a seconder the issue couldn't even be debated.
Eisenberger, who also failed to win council’s approval for a similar initiative last year, called the lack of support for a pilot plot “stunning.”

Comments

I'm not judging the merits of the idea, but I think it is out of sync with the greater pressures facing Hamiltonians.

The economic downturn and the crisis that is rippling world wide, will have varying impacts. I don't think Hamilton will not feel it, and I imagine it will be a tough holiday season and new year for many impoverished or working poor people. I imagine ordinary hard working people will also feel job threatened.

The nonsense never ends. Maybe the Mayor should dwell on important things like implementing term limits, which he advocated in his platform. Or getting a south mountain ambulatory centre, which he advocated in his platform. The former would be a sure fire way to get people to do the right thing, not the self serving thing, as they seem prone to doing in Hamilton at the moment. Or how about actually getting out there and selling Hamilton and bringing some business and jobs and tax revenues to town. What tangible results does our Ec Dev dept even have to show for itself. How many new business and jobs brought to town this year? Can you dig that up for us Ms Nicole?
Check out along the 403 near Brantford and even Brantford itself. Why are we not getting this? Mayor Fred should be the main cheerleader and salesman. Seems to be missing in action as is McCabe and the rest of the gang.SHAME!!!

I don't find it "stunning" at all that Eisenberger couldn't even get one councillor there to second the motion. This is a man that does not inspire me one bit and as we can see from this example here he can't even inspire members from his own council. I think he needs to get his priorities straightened out.

I wonder if anyone down there will learn the leason that most of us out here have learned. When times are good you sock away money for the tough times, because thats when you have money to save, not when theres a melt down at the eleventh hour.
I doubt it though, theres no leadership or will when the pit is over flowing.
Thats precisely why we always need fresh faces every election, new people aren't spoiled enough to say a million dollars is no big deal.

If anyone has bothered to check the record I don't believe Mayor Fred has been very successful in getting anything done with this Council. It is time to say that 'the Emperor has no clothes' or in the Mayor's case he has no influence. How sad for the city.

I do think the idea has merit, and would not necessarily be costly to at least investigate. Councillors, in committee and in full council meetings often blabber on endlessly, and self-servingly, about matters that have little or nothing to do with council's area of responsibility. To not even second the motion to at least discuss this median matter says to me that this council is increasingly unwilling to work together on anything. This matter, and the mayor himself, deserve a bit of respect but respect for each other appears to be an attitude sorely lacking around the council table. Beyond the immediate issue, this incident just shows once again the council members' collective immaturity and toxicity that is holding this city back.

May I offer a few suggestions to our Councillors? In regard to your image and the economic pressures…

1. Stop hiring consultants. Your staff are knowledgeable, proof being that half the consultants hired are former City employees. There's irony and a lack of foresight in not listening to someone until you've given them a whopping severance package and then hired them back as an 'expert'.

2. Get rid of the old boys' club. Half of these old boys are consultants (see above), and the other half are still doing things the way they did in the 1960s.

3. Start really looking at the ratio of management to non-management. If a supervisor has only 3 or 4 people under him, something's wrong. (We might trace some of this back to the old boys club.)

4. Stop ordering food every time you meet. If I can brown-bag it, so can you.

5. Listen to your staff. Let them do their jobs. Don't intimidate them. And then, after you've listened to them, make a decision. Please.

6. This applies to some Councillors…stop acting like you're God's gift to the rest of us. You're not. You're one person and should be answering to your constituents, not your ego. Stop grandstanding. Get to the point and sit down, please. We won't remember what you said after you've rambled on for 30 minutes. We'll only remember that you took a heck of a lot of time out of our lives. And we'll remember forever that you tried to get out of a speeding ticket by whining about your 'importance' and bullying the police.

7. Enforce your bylaws. Stop arguing for weeks about creating bylaws you have no hope of enforcing.

8. Go after owners of derelict buildings and, for heaven's sakes, let owners with a plan do their thing. If we'd left Liuna alone, we'd have a bright and shining Lister block by now.

9. Keep after the Province. Don't let them off the hook. Social Services should never have been downloaded to the property tax bill because you don't have to pay property tax to collect a social assistance cheque. It makes no sense.

10. Stop trying to leave a legacy. You will, if you work with integrity and take the high road. Trust me.

The naturalization idea is meant to reduce maintenance costs, I agree, and also would give Hamilton a better environmental image.

If naturalizing a median is a safety issue that causes distraction, then you would not see plantings at all around the city, as they would be 'distractions' also.

There will always be bigger issues, no matter what. The fact is, without the environment there would be no economy, so I think Eisenburger's proposal is justified. Many other cities are doing the same thing, so obviously there is value or else they wouldn't have done so.

I think the Mayor and council should take care of the trees in the city , which are dying in front of our yes. The city now even concretes over the dead trees hole..showing me the game plan. This is an outrage and should be made an issue.

Nicole Macintyre

Nicole MacIntyre is the queen of kings. A married mother of two boys, including the world's former worst sleeper, she's also a reporter and parenting columnist at the Hamilton Spectator. A devotee of the 'whatever works' approach to child-rearing, Nicole has learned to never say "I'll never" when it comes to parenting.